Introduction
Scrum isn’t just a process — it’s a way for teams to work smarter, deliver faster, and collaborate better. At its heart are a set of values and principles that guide how teams operate and succeed. Here’s a quick guide to what makes Scrum tick.
Scrum values
- Commitment: Everyone on the team — product owner, scrum master, and developers—owns the sprint goals and gives their best effort.
- Focus: Prioritize what matters most and stay aligned with the sprint goal. Minimize distractions to deliver value consistently.
- Openness: Share ideas, feedback, and concerns freely. A transparent environment encourages trust, learning and improvement.
- Respect: Appreciate each person’s skills and contributions. Respect builds a positive and productive team culture.
- Courage: Take risks, try new ideas, and speak up when something isn’t right. Mistakes become opportunities to learn.
Scrum principles
- Empirical process control: Inspect, adapt, and respond to change. Scrum teams rely on experience and feedback to improve.
- Self-organization: Teams decide how to get the work done. This encourages ownership, accountability, creativity, and better outcomes.
- Collaboration: Work closely with stakeholders to ensure the team delivers what’s truly needed. Communication is the key.
- Time-boxing: Events like daily scrums, sprint planning, and reviews have set time limits. This keeps work focused and disciplined.
- Iterative & incremental delivery: Deliver small, testable pieces of the product each sprint. Early feedback reduces risk and allows faster adaptation.
Why Scrum Works
Scrum thrives when teams live its values and principles. By embracing commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage, and following collaboration, self-organization, and iterative delivery, teams can deliver better products, faster, and with real impact.
Further reading:
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Scrum Guide (2020) – Ken Schwaber & Jeff Sutherland
Official Scrum framework guide, including values, principles, roles, and events.
https://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html -
Scrum Alliance – Scrum values and principles overview
https://www.scrumalliance.org/why-scrum -
Agile Alliance – Agile principles and best practices
https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/